Month: October 2008

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Salmon Problems

I read an interesting article about a biological problem that the fresh water fishing Norwegians have been having. My sons love a good salmon dinner, so I found this a particularly interesting read. Oh and it also shows how misleading the press can be! Something to think about especially now when we are about to elect a new leader for our country!

I thought some of you might enjoy it, so I’m posting a link to it below:

http://www.fishandfly.com/articles/20081027

Please check it out and let me know what you think?

Catch you later – Mark

 

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Columbus Day Fishing – How to Find Worms

I had Columbus Day off from work and the boys wanted to go fishing. So I asked them where they’d like to go and off we headed to our local creek. It was a warm sunny day and the tide was high so I figured on a good day for fishing. I always use lures when fishing – I guess because I like the challenge associated with them as opposed to putting bait on a hook and waiting for a fish to come eat.

So on our way to go fresh water fishing, I asked my older son to get some worms for his brother and him. It turns out that we hadn’t had much rain lately and the worms were hard to find. Where he would normally find lots of worms (lifting old logs and looking under leaves) he found only 2 little scrawny worms. Not good for fishing bait! So he and my younger son tried their hands at lure fishing.

We had some hits, but no catches. Frustration for my 5 yeqr old was very high!  😉  So I asked my older son again to try and find some worms – to which he replied, “Dad, there aren’t any worms around here.” So I had to go get them myself!  He taunted me with “You’re wasting your time Dad.”  But within 3 minutes I had a container full of very large worms!  Of course my older son wanted to know how I did it. After telling him that old age usually means more wisdom ;-), I explained how to find worms when they weren’t in the obvious places.

Want to know what I did? OK – here goes. When I was younger, much younger, I remember from some of the different magazines I used to read that a company sold 2 electric prods that you stuck into the ground and the low current between the prods caused the earth worms to come out of the ground. My friend had bought one of these contraptions and swore by it. So I figured that a little elbow grease could do the same thing. Just poke a larger stick in the ground a few times and shake it. The vibrations cause the worms to come right out of the ground. It works very well!  Just ask my sons! Of course you wouldn’t try this in sand where there are obviously no worms around, but do this in the places where worms would normally be found. You’ll be pleasantly pleased with the results.

Here’s a picture of the first fish my older son caught after they started using the worms we found.

Oh … and the rest of the trip was very successful. We caught some largemouth bass, sunnies, as well as some roaches. Overall a fun afternoon for all.

Catch you later.

-Mark

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New Jersey Wildlife Heritage Festival – It Was Great!

If you read my previous post on this topic, you’ll know I was excited to go to the NJ Wildlife Heritage Festival. But unfortunately it was raining fairly hard when it was time to leave home. (It’s about a 2 hour drive to get to Pequest – the festival location.) After some discussion, we decided to go; after all – it’s a rain or shine event!

It rained most of the way there and was still raining as we arrived. The vendors and exhibitors looked wet but appeared excited as well. We visited the museum area, checked out all the real and stuffed animals, got some great free informative NJ fishing and wildlife pamphlets and afterwards decided to go get some lunch in town and come back. We happened on a real nice hot dog stand called “Hot Dog Johnny’s” just down the road in Buttzville, NJ. After some great dogs and drinks, we headed back and finally the rain stopped.

First stop was the shotgun and archery stands. It was the first time my older son shot a real shotgun. I kind of chuckled to myself because I knew he had no idea of the recoil involved. The instructor was patient and showed him how to safely handle the gun and finally he squeezed the trigger and boom! The instructor asked him if he wanted to try again, but he politely declined. I asked him why later, and he admitted that it scared him a little! 😉

Both my younger and older son had fun shooting arrows at the archery exhibit. Some good instructions were provided by the facilitators and they actually hit the targets! 

It started to lightly rain again so we moved on up to the exhibits that were under tents. My younger son bought a kite and decorated it while my older son went to the fresh water fishing pond and caught a nice rainbow trout (Catch and release only). Here’s a small picture of the group he was fishing with:

We finally made our way to the fishing pool for children under 8 years of age and my 5 year old caught his very first rainbow trout! He was really excited! (I’ll post a picture of his fish a little later.) And just as we were putting his fish back into the pool, Smokey the Bear showed up in a fire truck. Could you ask for anything more?

It started to rain pretty hard, so after visiting a few more exhibits, we decided to head back home. Both boys as well as my wife and I had a very nice time. I highly recommend it if you’re looking for something to share with your friends and family next year. Hopefully it won’t rain on you!

Catch you later.

-Mark

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Need helpful tips for successful bass fishing.?

I have been fishing for many years now so I am not a fishing newbie but I am not sure about lure colors and how water clarity and weather conditions effect what would be the best choices. I like fishing spinners and crank baits and am asking for tips on color selection in specific conditions. I fish the mississippi river backwaters so the water is usually pretty murky and dark.

Thanks.

When fishing with crakbaits, i gennerally like to match the hatch… In murky water, you want to use firetiger colors…You also want to use gold… (gold produces lots of flash in dark water) With spinnerbaits, like to use a big spinnerbait, with big colorado blades.(A big lure choice and high vibration is a necessity for fishing murky water) i'd also go with white, yellow/orance, red, or gold… pretty much, if it looks very bright in the murky water it's good… sometimes, people will go the other way around and pick a black or brown colored spinner bait… Experiment with different colors… (I like to use big, bright colored lures that make lots of vibration in murky water)